A Pestilence!

I am preparing for a garage sale that I really don't want to have, but if I don't, the "clutter monster" will take over and slowly annihilate us all. Ok, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but it is just the mark of a tired, hot, frustrated woman who has been carrying boxes all day, waving her magic marker over price labels and wondering where she is going to put everything in this garage so that shoppers can actually walk through here on Saturday.

That doll collection from the 80's - it's going. The counted cross stitch creations from the 90's - tada, going. Dickens Village - no room for it in this house. A myriad of frames, lamps in various sizes and shapes, Janelle's collection of outgrown children's clothes, shoes, purses, Christmas decor, Jennie's dog collection - oh, we've got it all...all in the garage, awaiting "pricing" and customers and (I pray) sales. Come one, come all.

Oh, be sure to look for the glassy-eyed lady in the corner. She once was a sane, fairly intelligent woman.
(Backtowork)

(This post originally appeared on the Elling Family News blog on June 16, 2009.)

I Have a Gratitude Attitude

Jason and Matthew

Emotions have been up, down and all around for the last few days.

First of all, we are thankful for our son-in-law's safe arrival home from his Army Reserve humanitarian mission in Honduras. He was gone a month doing construction work there on a base and helping the Honduran people with some projects.

He arrived home in the very early morning hours of Sunday, the same day as our grandson's baptism. We celebrated Matthew's special day by attending church together with lots of family members and then eating far too well at lunch afterwards. Matt is such a happy, little boy who likes to laugh ...and eat.

Today we had the great news from the doctors at Cleveland Clinic that our son's MRI shows stable - no growth or negative change. We praise God for that news! See Jason's website for his story and to leave a message: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/teamjason We appreciate, more than we can express, all the prayers that have gone out for him and the family.

On Friday, he and his wife celebrated their 5th anniversary and tomorrow (Tues) Jim and I mark our 36th year of marriage. I think back in 1973, I spent $50 for a wedding dress, did my own hair, sewed one of the bridesmaid's dresses and my mom served up a little buffet dinner after the wedding. It was a pretty simple event, but it seems to have taken!

(This post originally appeared on the Elling Family News on June 8, 2009.)

I Jumped the Tracks

(This post originally appeared on Elling Family News on May 9, 2009).



Never assume...

In an earlier post about the Elling immigrants coming to Henry County from Toledo, I stated that no trains were in the area at the time. But in thinking about the death of Henry Elling, Johann's Friedrich's son in a train accident...well, you have to have a train to have a train accident. They immigrated in 1859 and he died in 1862, so some railroad line had to be in the area. I had researched the B & O and some others, but should have read more. I was narrow-minded in my thinking, as I thought of trains moving from the east to the west.

BUT one railroad company of that time moved from west to east - The Wabash. In 1853, a railroad line was running from near Springfield, IL eastward just in Illinois and it was known as the Great Western Railroad. The folks in Indiana and Ohio were excited about the prospect of connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River for economic purposes, and by 1852 the Lake Erie, Wabash and St. Louis Railroad had also been formed and would connect with that Illinois line going through Indiana into Ohio. By the summer of 1856, the Great Western and the Lake Erie, Wabash and St. Louis companies merged into the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railroad.

The Wabash Railroad History online states, "The Toledo, Wabash and Western, with lines running west and southwest from Toledo, enjoyed a better situation in 1859 than any other railroad in the area. The lines crossed Indiana and Illinois and connected the lake port of Toledo with the Mississippi River ports just above St. Louis and St. Charles."
http://home.comcast.net/~wabashrr/wabhist.html

The Henry and Fulton County history has several references to the Wabash line going through Napoleon. So now we have a train and an accident, but no details.

I'm going to have to find some newspaper with a report of Henry's accident and not too many have survived since 1862. I've checked Napoleon's papers with no luck, so next I'll try Defiance. Could Henry have left home at the young age of 16 to work for the railroad? It seems he might have been needed for farm work. Where did the accident occur? What happened?
The search goes on...

Hans Friedrich Elling and Anna Marie Helmke

Not out of "stuff" yet! Last on the blog, we learned about Hans Joachim Elling, my fifth great grandfather. His records, thankfully, led to his parents: Hans Friedrich Elling and wife Anna Marie Helmke.

In the parish records of Dushorn, my researcher was unable to find marriage records or burial records for either Hans Friedrich or Anna Marie. The microfilm is not always the best; perhaps if the actual books could be accessed, those records might be located. She stated that the records prior to 1777 were extremely difficult to read.

The baptism records of the parish from 1730 - 1770 were then checked with no success in finding Anna Marie's birth, but Hans Friedrich was located. I do not have a copy of that record, again because it was too poor to copy, but the researcher did extract the data for me.

Dushorn Parish Baptism Register, p. 74.
Name of the Child: Hans Friedrich Elling
Date of Birth: 5th of March 1735 (No baptism date given.)
Name of the Father: Christ. Friedrich Elling
Name of the Mother: Cathrine Marg. Brecht
Godfathers: Hans Ripke from Ronhagen; Hans Heinrich Meiss from Fallingbostel; Cord Bleden from the Darbrugge at Walsrode.

More luck in that another generation back is revealed.

Also in the Baptism Register, two more children - siblings to Hans Joachim - were found. I have included the copy above, so if you enlarge it, you can follow along with the translation. :-)

Dushorn Parish Baptism Register, p. 76
Anno (Year) 1758
Name of the Child: Hans Friedrich (Jr.)
Date of Birth: 22nd of January 1758; baptized 24th of January 1758
Name of the Father: Hans Friedrich Elling
Name of the Mother: Anna Maria Helmken
Godfather: Hans Jacob Helmken

Anno 1760
Name of the Child: Ilse Marie Dorothee
Date of Birth: 23rd of April 1760, baptized 27th of April 1760
Name of the Father: Hans Friedrich Elling
Name of the Mother: Anna Marie Helmken
Godmothers: Ilse Marg. Helmkens from Tideln, Marie Elisabeth Anne Grothofs from Elfern, Anne Dorothee Jankens from Elfern.

From here on, research becomes trickier but not impossible. We can still go back further, but the documentation becomes sketchier. More on that next time!

Rudyburger, Anyone?

This was really a special day for me because I found out how to make a Rudyburger!

Dana O. has spoken to me a couple times about her fond memories of going down to my mom and dad's (Donna and Rudy's) trailer at the river and cooking Rudyburgers. I wanted to ask, "What are those?" but I thought I probably once knew and just forgot. Surely the answer would come to me...but it never did.

Then Teresa M. wrote a memory to me yesterday about eating Rudyburgers down along the Maumee with my parents! Ok, too much. I surrendered. I asked. "What the heck is a Rudyburger?" I have to admit that I was expecting a much more complicated answer than I got. So simple.

Wrap a raw hamburger patty in tin foil and throw in into the campfire. When you think it should be done, take it out and eat it. That's it? Yep.

Now I have to try it, but I would think knowing exactly when the burger would be done might be tricky. Do I need a timer? Are there certain sounds that signal doneness? Does the campfire flame turn to a flickering, red color to denote the completion of cooking? Is a Rudyburger always charred past recognition? I think I need a few more instructions.

Any thoughts?

Aren't you glad I told you about Rudyburgers? I'll bet Rudyburgers were especially for kids, don't you?

P.S. You probably think I've put all the family history on already. Nope. I think we can go back even further back into the life of the Ellings...next blog.

Our Spoering Family

Front Row: Lydia, Father Henry (my great-grandfather,) Amelia, George, Mother Mary (my great-grandmother,) Sophia
Back Row: Mary, Fred, Anna, Henry, Ida (my grandmother,) Freida, Kate


 
Front Row: Sophia (Marksch), Fred, Henry, George, Mary (Baden)Back Row: Anna (Helmke), Lydia (Loudon), Freida (Lange), Amelia (Schlegel), Ida Elling and Kate Tietje Elling

Since I've told the stories of Grandma Elling and Aunt Kate, it seems the right time to talk more about their family - the Spoerings. My Spoering great-grandparents immigrated from Germany through Bremen on the ship called the SS Main, arriving at the Castle Garden immigration station in New York City on March 6, 1882. On the ship's list for the trip, Henry, age 36, stated that he iwas from Prussia and his destination was Defiance, O.

It is likely that he had friends or relatives from his German town to come to in America. On his naturalization papers, Charles Evers and George Daum gave oaths that he had lived in the U.S. for the required five years and that he was of good moral character. Henry farmed in Richfield Township and at various times also lived in Monroe and Bartlow Townships in Henry County. It is said that he spoke only German.

Mary Floke Spoering was 26 years old at the time of immigration and we know her birth village was Nindorf, Prussia. Mary was born Catharina Maria Benien on October 26, 1855, the illegitimate child of Anna Catharine Benien, daughter of Harm Benien and his wife Gesche, born Meyer. The birth record states that "the illegitimate child is born in the house of the parents of the birth mother." Mary was baptized on October 29, 1855, in St. John's Ev. Lutheran Church in Visselhovedre. No godparents were listed. 

A later supplement to the birth record dated May 17, 1861, stated that "Carsten Heinrich Floke, resident of Jeddingen, and his wife Anna Catharina, born Benien, have declared before me, as parents of the illegitimate child entered on this page, and is now to be regarded as a legitimate child who will take the surname of the father Flocke." This was signed by a pastor and noted that it would be placed in the church records.

According to my helpful German researcher, this legalization of a child after marriage was quite common in these times. Illegitimacy rates were high because there were strict laws concerning marriage, especially that the male have a certain level of income before vows could be made.

The Spoering Reunion circa 1926

 Recently, one of my aunts wrote that the annual Spoering family reunion was going to fold, mainly because of poor attendance. It was getting harder for the older members of the family to complete the planning and work to have it. That is a sad thing, isn't it?

The photo above is of a Spoering reunion that took place in 1926 or thereabouts. From my uncle, I learned that generally the reunions were held in one of the family's barns which was cleaned and decorated for the occasion. Note the crepe paper hanging from the barn rafters in the photo. A carry-in dinner would be held and the leftovers then served for supper. Maybe there would be music, but certainly the kids would play hard all day and the adults would catch up on all the family and neighborhood news. What great memories would be made!

Here are the identities of the folks in the photo as given to me by various relatives:
Row 1 (left to right): Richard Spoering, Edmund Helmke, Alvin Spoering, Rudolph Elling (my father,) Alfred Elling, Helen Gerken Meyer, Alma Elling Hicksted, Marie Loudon Plassman, Anna Loudon Crew, Norma Loudon Schlosser, ....Schneider, Martha Spoering Sunderman, Marie Fouts Bockelman

At left standing - Fred Spoering, Anna Spoering Helmke, George Helmke
At right standing - Albert Gerken, ...?, Henry Spoering, ...Storch

Row 2: Anna Spoering, Adolph Baden, Mary Spoering Koppenhoffer Baden, Alvina Cohrs, Lydia Spoering Loudon and baby Ruth Loudon Rupp Switzer, Ida Spoering Elling (my grandmother) and baby Lorna Elling Hausch, Clara Marsch Plassman and baby Harold, Adelia Marsch Panning, Emma Storch, Sophia Spoering Marsch, Emma Gerken Baden.

Row 3: Esther Marsch Barnes May, Gertrude Spoering Sandman, Dorothy Loudon Flint, Helen Gerken Meyer, Helen Marsch Miller, Pauline Helmke Polker, Helen Hoops Drewes, Esther Spoering, Alma Hoops, Martha Marsch Ohlrich, Katherina Spoering Tietje Elling.

Row 4: Paul Elling, Alvin Gerken, Harold Helmke, George Loudon, Albert Fouts, Frieda Spoering Fouts Lange, Augusta Spoering Hahn, Amelia Spoering Slagle, Erna Bremer Baden.

Row 5: Bill Tietje, Harry Loudon, Otto (Emil?) Panning, Albert Elling (my grandfather,) Ernest Plassman, Emil Koppenhoffer, George Spoering, Ernest Marasch, Emil Hahn, Arthur Bremer.

(If someone knows the identities of those not named or if you see a mistake in identification, please let me know.)

Just click on the photo to see a great close-up of those faces!

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. ~Desmond Tutu

I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich. ~Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford, "Identity Crisis," M*A*S*H